Hawks stop Aztecs late

Tuesday

Oct 30, 2007 at 12:01 AMNov 2, 2007 at 10:11 PM

By MATTHEW PETERS / Staff Writer

BARSTOW - Silverado coach Carl Posey wanted to take a page out of Barstow's playbook again.

Posey had his team run Barstow's double-wing offense late in a blowout victory last year, but this time he was just trying to hang on to a four-point lead at his own 12-yard line with 2 minutes, 39 seconds left in a 14-10 win on Monday.

"(Barstow) just had so many third- and fourth-and-shorts that they were successful in," Posey said. "It got frustrating. They kept burning that clock down and down and down. I wanted to do the same thing with 2 minutes left, and I don't know what happened."

The Hawks committed their first turnover of the night at the worst possible time. Barstow lineman Luis Mitchell stripped Walter Owens of the ball, and Paul Clemmons recovered at the 11-yard line.

A play earlier it appeared the Aztecs' night would end on a Daniel Ta'ase interception. Scrambling with Silverado tacklers closing in, Ta'ase threw into triple coverage, and Silverado came out with the ball.

Barstow coach Jesse Ceniceros told his team to go looking for the ball when Silverado took over looking to kill clock.

"I called a timeout, and I went out there and just looking at all their faces, it looked like they were about to fold," Ceniceros said. "I said, `Hey, we got a lot of time left. Go in there and get the ball back, and we are right in it.' "

The Aztecs got one final chance but failed to put in the winning touchdown with four attempts at the end zone. Barstow's night ended when Ta'ase's pass attempt to Jacqueze Fellows went through the back of the end zone.

The win puts Silverado (4-2-2, 2-0 Desert Sky League) in position to take the DSL title for the second straight year. For the Aztecs, it was a closer game than last year's matchup, but still not the result they wanted to see.

"It was a league championship game, and we put on a good show for the people that were here," Ceniceros said.

The Aztecs (3-5, 2-1 DSL) had multiple chances to take the game away. An unsportsman-like conduct penalty in the second quarter stalled an Aztecs drive and knocked them out of field goal range.

The Hawks opened the second half with a scoring drive to put them up for good and also tacked on a 2-point conversion that would later haunt the Aztecs. Had Barstow stopped the conversion, a field goal could have given them a win on their final drive.

Barstow responded to Silverado's third-quarter scoring drive by taking the ball down to the 11-yard line but coughed it up with 3 minutes remaining in the quarter. The Aztecs also fumbled at midfield in the first quarter.

"I'm proud of the kids," Ceniceros said. "The kids played their hearts out, but again, it's what's been killing us all year - fumbles."

Both teams opened the game with scoring drives, but Silverado took a 6-3 lead with a touchdown as Barstow converted a field goal.

Barstow stuffed the Hawks for the rest of the half and added a touchdown to make it 10-6 with a 12-yard pass to Curtis Webb with 4 seconds remaining in the half.